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WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman John Garamendi (D-Fairfield, Davis, Yuba City, CA) applauded today’s passage of the Defense Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2019. The $675 billion piece of legislation funds the Department of Defense pursuant to policy set in the National Defense Authorization Act, which Garamendi helped draft as a member of the House Armed Services Committee. It contains the largest pay raise for our men and women in uniform in nearly a decade. It also funds vital local and national priorities.

“This bill does a lot of good: It gives our men and women in uniform a 2.6% pay raise, the largest in nearly a decade. Locally, it allots $35 million to modernize the air cargo handling system at Travis Air Force Base and supports the KC-46 mission, funding another 15 aircraft. For Beale, the bill provides funds to modernize and improve critical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets. Additionally, I’ve fought hard to get the Department of Defense to take the vulnerabilities of our GPS system seriously and move toward integrating a backup technology, and this bill provides additional funds to allow the Department to continue this important work.”

“But let’s be clear: This is a $675 billion piece of legislation, and it is incumbent on us to make responsible fiscal choices. Maintaining global military superiority is an increasingly expensive proposition. President Trump’s tax scam, which gave 83% of a $2 trillion reduction in federal revenue to the wealthiest one percent as well as corporations, has created massive deficits. The day is coming where we will face a choice: either take on even more massive, unsustainable deficits, or face the erosion of our ability to project global military power.”

“I don’t want us to have to make that choice, but that is what will be left to us if we proceed down our current fiscal path.”